Mayflower-Episcopal to set playoff seeds

By Kevin Black
UCA sportswriting

Mayflower — The Mayflower Eagles will play at Episcopal Collegiate Friday night in a 3A-2 Conference match up to determine the third and fourth seeds for the Class 3A State Playoffs, which begin next week.

The two teams share a 4-2 conference record.

Mayflower coach Jed Davis said he plans to try an aggressive passing game.

“We’re going to try to air it out against them tonight,” Davis said. “They stack the box against the last few teams they played, and we feel like the passing game should be wide open for us.”

Last year Mayflower beat the Wildcats 49-7 to win the conference championship and a bye in the first round of the playoffs, but this year the Eagles will have to beat the Wildcats to secure a third seed.

“We’ve put [the win over the Wildcats last season] behind us, because this Episcopal team is different than last year, and so is ours,” Davis said.

An Eagle win would mean a third seed and a first round game against Lavaca, and a loss would leave the Eagles in the fourth seed to play Bauxite, according to Davis.

“I told our team, ‘Look, we’ve got a better chance of making a deep run in the playoffs as a third seed than as a fourth seed,” Davis said.

The Wildcat running backs will present a challenge for the Eagles’ defense, but the offense could decide the game, according to Davis.

“They’ve got some fast shift backs that we are going to have to contain,” Davis said. “But we think it might end up being a shooting match, and we think we’d score more than they can.”

The Eagles offense has averaged 34 points per game this season. Senior Demetris Lasker has accumulated 1,085 yards and scored 15 touchdowns this season to lead the Eagles rushing offense, while senior quarterback Jordan Dycus, who has 2,022 yards passing and 17 touchdowns, manages the passing game.

Lasker and Dycus combined for nine touchdowns against England last week; Dycus had six of those — four passing and two running.

Lasker has battled a groin injury all season.

“[Lasker] is not 100 percent, but he’s going to start for us,” Davis said.

Lasker said the defense would need to play better than it did last week against the winless England Lions, who scored 50 points against the Eagles.

“We’re going to fill up the holes (in the defensive line),” Lasker said. “We should get a win.”

Kickoff is at 7 p.m.